The present invention relates to an apparatus for blending coating materials and particularly a straddle mixer that is adjustable to suit paint drums of different sizes and fastenable to the paint drum, and has a detachable blender to facilitate washing and cleaning.
A conventional paint or coating material mixer such as the one shown in FIG. 1 mainly includes a small driving motor 1 which has a spindle extended to form a center stem 2. The center stem 2 has a lower end coupled with one or more blades 3 which may be driven to rotate by the motor 1. The top end and one side of the motor 1 have respectively a handle ring 4 and a handgrip 5 to enable an user to grasp with two hands for placing the lower end of the center stem 2 into a paint drum to mix the paint contained therein with the rotating blades 3 when the motor 1 is activated. In practical use, paints and coating materials usually have a relatively high viscosity, and a painter usually has to estimate in advance the required paint for a given painting area, and blends the required paint of a desired color in one batch to avoid blending in different batches and result in different painting color hues. However, the conventional paint mixer mentioned above is suitable only for blending a small amount of paint. This is mainly caused by the constraints of human labor and the sizes of the handle ring and handgrip. As the motor is made from metal and is quite heavy, and the paint has a great viscosity, it is difficult for a painter to grasp and hold the paint mixer for a long period of time or to blend a large amount of paint. This is a problem pending to be resolved.
Therefore the primary object of the invention is to provide a straddle mixer that has a larger driving motor mounted onto a horizontal base dock. There is a clamp apparatus with an adjustable clamping width located beneath the base dock for fastening to the upper rim of a paint drum. The clamp apparatus also enables a blender to move to thoroughly blend the paint.
Another object of the invention is to provide a chuck below the motor that is movable to grip or detach the blender so that the paint drum may be cleaned easily and the blender may be detached or replaced conveniently.